The exchange took place during an oral question tabled by Labour & Co-operative peer Lord Kennedy, who questioned the Conservative spokesperson Viscount Younger on what action the government are taking to promote co-operative housing.

In his reply, Younger confirmed that the government ‘recognised’ an important role for housing co-ops and community land trusts, and that the Government was looking ‘carefully’ at schemes in Wales, which have been set up with the support of the Labour-run Welsh government.

In his follow-up, Kennedy pushed the government for more detail, asking whether the government had plans to formally establish co-operative housing tenure in law – a move which Labour & Co-operative politicians in both Houses have long argued for. He also queried the Government’s plans to make it easier for housing co-operatives to access land. Earlier this year, Party Chair Gareth Thomas MP attempted to amend the government’s Housing and Planning Bill in the Commons to do just that – a proposal which the Government rejected.

His arguments were reinforced by Co-operative peer Lord Tomlinson and Labour peer Baroness Royall, both of whom identified further examples of where housing co-operatives in Wales and Scandinavia are leading the way.

Monday’s activity came ahead of the launch of a new paper by Policy Network which identified co-operative housing as key in tackling the UK’s housing crisis. On Tuesday, Party General Secretary Claire McCarthy joined Jake Sumner, the paper’s author, and other leading figures from across the sector at the launch of ‘Building for generation rent: How a co-owned, co-operative model can solve the housing crisis’ . 

Speaking at the launch, Claire McCarthy said:

‘The Co-operative Party continues to press the case for Co-operative Housing, in the recent Housing and Planning Bill we ensured that the voice of co-operative housing sector was heard and debates like yesterday and the report launch I attended today shows a real appetite for innovative co-operative housing. I am especially pleased that the Minister recognised that legislation in Wales piloted by the then Labour-Co-operative Minister Huw Lewis could be the template for tenure in England.”